County GOP party names new chairwoman

Billye Brooks-Sebastiani narrowly defeated Larry Stickney on Saturday to win a two-year term as chairwoman of the Snohomish County Republican Party.

Sebastiani beat Stickney by a handful of votes cast by precinct committee officers during the party meeting at Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish, officials said.

Sebastiani, an Arlington resident, was the party’s vice-chairwoman entering Saturday’s contest. She is also a board member of the Evergreen Republican Women’s Club and a former district director of the Washington Federation of Republican Women.

“She did a heck of a job for me,” said Bill Cooper, the outgoing party chairman. “I had significant dependence and reliance on her and she came through.”

Cooper told fellow Republicans in October he had decided not to seek re-election for personal reasons.

Stickney, also an Arlington resident, is well-known among GOP rank-and-file. Most recently he managed Snohomish County Councilman John Koster’s unsuccessful campaign for Congress. Afterward he angered state and national Republican Party leaders by blaming them for not doing more to help Koster in the race.

Also Saturday, county Republicans elected Brian Luke as the party’s vice-chairman and Jim Donner and Olga Farnam as representatives on the GOP state committee.

Meanwhile, Democrats will choose a new party chairman for Snohomish County this Saturday. Bill Phillips, the current chairman, is not seeking re-election.